Monday, February 23, 2009

Joe Biden Stimulus Czar: God Help Us All

President Obama has turned to his own vice president to overseeimplementation of the $787 billion economic stimulus package, part of which will be available this week for state Medicaid programs.

Obama announced his decision before the National Governors Association in Washington on Monday, saying Vice President Joe Biden will help ensure the distribution of the money is not just swift, "but also efficient and effective."

"The fact that I'm asking my vice president to personally lead this effort shows how important it is for our country and future to get this right," he said.

Let me put this in perspective. Citizens Against Government Waste, the group that specializes in being a watch dog against wasteful government spending, routinely put Biden in a select group the worst wasteful spenders while he was in Congress. In other words, we will have someone that has a long history of supporting endless amounts of wasteful spending be in charge of making sure that $787 Billion be spent efficiently, without corruption, and without waste. If that isn't the definition of the fox guarding the henhouse, I don't know what is.

There's another way to look at it. The biggest organization that Joe Biden has ever been responsible for before this was the Senate Foreign Relation's Committee. Between staff and other legislators this would be a group of several hundred. Now, with no other experience of leading anything else, he will be responsible for implementing a plan that will involve millions of people and nearly a trillion Dollars worth of spending. I know I feel good about how this will be managed.

President Obama confuses a lifetime in Congress with being a prerequisite for spending other people's money well as opposed to merely being able to spend other people's money. Joe Biden has absolutely no significant qualification to oversee the spending of nearly a trillion Dollars, though to be fair, almost no one does. (which is part of the problem)